Weekly update: Preseason

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution is five days away from officially opening the 2014 campaign as the team reports for preseason training in Foxborough this Saturday, Jan. 25. Players will train on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 26, at Gillette Stadium, before departing for Bradenton, Fla., on Monday, Jan. 27, where the team will train for 12 days.

The Revs are coming off of the first day of the 2014 MLS SuperDraft last Thursday, Jan. 16, when the team maneuvered to claim two picks in the top 11, drafting two of the top attacking prospects available. With the fourth overall pick, the Revs drafted midfielder/forward Steve Neumann out of Georgetown, and then followed it by selecting two-time defending national player of the year Patrick Mullins out of Maryland with the 11th overall selection. In the second round, the team drafted midfielder Alec Sundly out of California.

TEAM NOTES

19th Season in Sights
The Revolution is set to open its 19th campaign this Saturday when training camp commences … the Revs, who entered MLS in 1996 when the league was formed, have a 208-242-111 all-time record and have scored 778 goals in 18 seasons … in 18 previous seasons, the Revs have qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs 11 times, including the 2013 season.

47 Days and Counting
The Revolution will formally open the 2014 season in just 47 days – on Saturday, March 8 – at Houston … between now and the season opener, the Revs will travel for two extended training trips in Bradenton, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz., and then prepare for the season opener the first full week of March.

SuperDraft continues Tuesday
The third and fourth rounds of the MLS SuperDraft will be conducted via conference call on Tuesday, Jan. 21 … teams can select players from the pool of draft-eligible players who were not selected in last Thursday’s SuperDraft in Philadelphia … the Revs currently have one selection in the upcoming rounds, the 50th overall pick (the 12th pick in the third round) … the team’s natural fourth-round pick was traded to D.C. United in exchange for the rights to Charlie Davies last year when he originally joined New England on loan from Sochaux.

Welcome to New England
The Revolution selected three players in the first two rounds of the MLS SuperDraft last Thursday in Philadelphia … two of the players – Steve Neumann (fourth overall) and Patrick Mullins (11th overall) – are already on the Revs’ roster after having signed MLS contracts before the draft, while Sundly will enter camp unsigned and attempt to earn a contract.

2013 Chart

Pick

GP

GS

G

A

Awards

#4 Steve Neumann (Georgetown)

21

21

10

6

All-America; Big East Offensive POY

#11 Patrick Mullins (Maryland)

26

26

19

8

two-time MAC Hermann Trophy Winner

#31 Alec Sundly (California)

20

20

9

2

Second Team All-Pac 12

Ecstatic with all the love I'm getting from the @NERevolution faithful. Can already tell how passionate they are about their Revs!

Roster breakdown by position
The Revolution is currently set to open camp with 24 players signed to the roster … this includes three (3) goalkeepers, eight (8) defenders, eight (8) midfielders and five (5) forwards …with a complete roster fixed at 30 players, the team currently has six roster spots available … the club is expecting to trial multiple players during preseason.
Goalkeepers (3):

Brad Knighton

Bobby Shuttleworth*

Luis Soffner

Defenders (8):

Kevin Alston

Darrius Barnes

Andrew Farrell*

Jose Goncalves*

Stephen McCarthy

A.J. Soares*

Chris Tierney*

O’Brian Woodbine

Midfielders (8):

Scott Caldwell*

Paolo DelPiccolo

Andy Dorman

Diego Fagundez*

Steve Neumann

Lee Nguyen*

Kelyn Rowe*

Donnie Smith

Forwards (5):

Jerry Bengtson

Charlie Davies

Dimitry Imbongo*

Patrick Mullins

Saer Sene*

(*indicates returning starters)

Roster breakdown by international designation
The Revolution currently has five international players on its roster … the Revs have a total of eight international roster spots with the five used spots occupied by:

Jerry Bengtson (Honduras)

Jose Goncalves (Portugal)

Dimitry Imbongo (Congo)

Saer Sene (France)

O’Brian Woodbine (Jamaica)

Roster breakdown by age
The average age of the Revolution’s 24-man roster entering training camp is 25.3 years old … only one player – Andy Dorman (31) – is aged 30 or older … the other 23 players on the roster are 28 years old or younger

Age 30+ (1)

Andy Dorman (31)

Ages 27-28 (7)

Darrius Barnes (27)

Charlie Davies (27)

Jose Goncalves (28)

Brad Knighton (28)

Lee Nguyen (27)

Saer Sene (27)

Chris Tierney (28)

Ages 24-26 (7)

Kevin Alston (25)

Jerry Bengtson (26)

Stephen McCarthy (25)

Bobby Shuttleworth (26)

A.J. Soares (25)

Luis Soffner (24)

O’Brian Woodbine (26)

Ages 20-23 (8)

Scott Caldwell (22)

Paolo DelPiccolo (22)

Andrew Farrell (21)

Dimitry Imbongo (23)

Patrick Mullins (21)

Steve Neumann (22)

Kelyn Rowe (22)

Donnie Smith (23)

Age <20 (1)

Diego Fagundez (18)

Defense department returns at full strength
The Revolution finished the 2013 season tied as the league’s third-best defensive team, posting a team goals against average of 1.12 while recording a club-record 14 shutouts … all eight defenders who were with the Revolution for the duration of the 2013 season have returned in 2014, including reigning MLS Defender of the Year, Jose Goncalves (34 starts) … also returning are second-year right back Andrew Farrell (32 starts), seventh-year left back Chris Tierney (29 appearances) and third-year central defenders Stephen McCarthy (19 appearances) and A.J. Soares (18 appearances).

Attack remains noteworthy
The Revolution parted ways with 10 players at the end of the season, but the team’s returning attack remains strong headed into 2014:

Coaching staff adds new member
The Revolution added a new member to the coaching staff, bringing on MLS veteran Tom Soehn as Jay Heaps’ top assistant … Soehn, who previously served as the head coach for D.C. United (2007-09) and interim head coach for Vancouver Whitecaps FC (2011), and also held assistant coach positions at Chicago (2001-02) and D.C. (2003-06) and a technical director role at Vancouver (2011-12) … Soehn joined the Revs’ staff at the 2014 MLS Combine and then at the MLS SuperDraft last week.

Desert Diamond Cup tickets on sale
Tickets for the 2014 FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup hosted by FC Tucson (USL PDL) are now on sale … for the third consecutive year , the Revs will participate in the February tournament to wrap up their preseason training … Chivas USA, the Chicago Fire, the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake will also join the Revs in Tucson for the tournament … the round-robin group games will be played on Wednesday, Feb. 19, Saturday, Feb. 22 and Wednesday, Feb. 26, before the championship and consolation games are played on Saturday, March 1 … tickets are available for purchase by clickingHERE.